Archive for May, 2008

Some of you may be acquainted with Oleh Tiahnybok, leader of the “Svoboda” party of Ukrainian nationalists. Today, he’s hosting a concert on the Maidan, in honour of the “Day of Heroes,” a day that he seems to have thought up himself and would like to see become a public holiday in Ukraine.

The man is out of his tree.

Four years ago, he came steaming into public view for a anti-Semitic and anti-Russian speech given on Hoverle in Western Ukraine. Largely for this speech, Yushchenko kicked “Svoboda” out of the “Our Ukraine” Bloc, although Tiahnybok himself says that this was done “in accordance with the Talmudic principle – find and destroy the best of the non-Jews.”

Lest you think that gave him time to reflect and, perhaps, re-assess his position on some of Ukraine’s non-titular ethnic groups – think again!

Poor translation (though not for lack of trying,) with which help will be greatly appreciated:

“Anti-Semitism is not a free-standing phenomenon, but derives from Semitism. When, after the Chernobyl nuclear station accident, radiation levels rose sharply, steps were taken against that radiation, which seeped out everywhere. […] That’s how it is with anti-Semitism: it’s a reaction to rising levels of Semitism in society. And no government can do anything about it, even if they shut down all insititutes of higher education.

The word Semitism itself is a phantom, a mask, that doesn’t really mean anything. An anti-Semite is one who dislikes Semites. Arabs also belong to the Semitic family – the biggest anti-Semites in the world.”

Ahem…apart from anything else (i.e. Jews, Jewishness, Jewish influence being compared to deadly radiation that killed many Ukrainians and made thousands more extremely ill,) I’m truly tired of seeing that latter argument. It’s as weak as an argument can be, but if Tiahybok would be happier, I’m more than willing to call him what he is: someone who hates Jews. Not as pithy as “anti-Semite,” but the gist is the same.

I’ll be posting more about this over the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Wall Street Journal Europe
May 14, 2008
Bullies of the Caucasus
By THOMAS DE WAAL
Mr. de Waal is Caucasus editor at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

If you’re deep in the trenches, stop digging. Both Russia and Georgia darkly warned last week
of the danger of war over the Black Sea territory of Abkhazia, but they both keep digging.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Moscow and Tbilisi have come “very close” to a
military confrontation. Russia threatened Georgia, moving in an extra 500 troops to join
the force it leads in Abkhazia. Formally peacekeepers under an international mandate,
these troops not only keep the peace — on Russian terms — but strengthen Moscow’s grip
over a region that is legally part of Georgia.

In Moscow, Georgia-baiting has now become a popular sport. Vladimir Putin dramatically
stepped up his support for Abkhazia and hostility toward Georgia in the last two months of his
presidency in what looked like an effort to lock his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, into a hard-line policy.

Mr. Saakashvili is also using the putative threat of Russian aggression for domestic political
purposes and to call for Western support. His own standing has recently suffered after his
crackdown on the opposition last November and a suspiciously wafer-thin re-election as president
in January. His governing party is now facing a tough fight in parliamentary elections on May 21.

The talk I heard in Tbilisi 10 days ago was that some hotheads around the president are tempted to
make a move on Abkhazia, perhaps as early as next week, to boost popular support for the president
ahead of the elections. Wiser voices, such as that of Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze, are
warning that this would be a catastrophe.

It is clear that Russia manipulates the Abkhazia conflict to punish Georgia for trying to escape
Moscow’s orbit of influence and move closer to the West. A telling moment was when Sergei
Mironov, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, in October 2006 let slip: “We
won’t forgive those who spit at us.”

As a result of Tbilisi’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO, Russia has bullied its
southern neighbor. In autumn 2006, Moscow banned the import of Georgian wine and mineral water —
long a fixture of Russian dinner tables — on the dubious grounds that they were “unsanitary,”
imposed a transport blockade, and brutally deported Georgian migrant workers.

Most blatant have been Russian incursions into Georgian airspace, including two rocket attacks
on remote parts of Georgian territory last year. Thankfully this demonstration of power did not
cause any casualties. This is where Georgia deserves the West’s unwavering support. A much
swifter investigation into these incidents and a much blunter response from Western governments
might have deterred Moscow from further aggression. A Russian rocket attack on Georgia
should be no more tolerated than a Russian attack on, say, Finland. In addition, it is time for
Brussels to revive a shelved plan to set up an EU monitoring mission on the Russian-Georgian
border. But as much as Moscow is using the Abkhazia conflict to settle old scores with
Tbilisi, the Georgians are missing the point by blaming Russia alone for their trouble with the
renegade province. Russia is a secondary actor in this dispute. Even if it had not intervened,
there would still be a Georgian-Abkhaz problem that needs to be fixed.

The Abkhaz are a small ethnic group unrelated to the Georgians, who have shared with them for
centuries the same beautiful stretch of Black Sea coastline. During the perestroika era the Abkhaz demanded greater autonomy from the Soviet Republic of Georgia and felt threatened by a resurgence of
Georgian xenophobic nationalism. War started in 1992 with the Georgian army’s sacking of the
Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi, and what could be termed ethnic cleansing of Abkhaz. Then the Abkhaz
managed to turn the tide and defeated the Georgians. The majority of the prewar Georgian
population of Abkhazia — around 239,000 people, or 45% of the total population — left in what
amounted to a second act of ethnic cleansing.

The Abkhaz won a bitter victory in a nasty ethnic conflict in which both sides committed crimes.
For the next decade Abkhazia existed as a miserable hinterland in a state of self-declared independence.

When Mr. Saakashvili was elected president in 2004 with a huge popular mandate for change, he
had a historic opportunity to be the Charles deGaulle of the Caucasus. But instead of offering a
grand peace deal to the Abkhaz, Mr. Saakashvili maintained a policy of economic isolation and
moral outrage over the secessionists. He even moved extra troops into the mountains of
Abkhazia. And when he started on the path of NATO accession, he did so without offering any
assurances to his pro-Russian breakaway provinces (the other one is South Ossetia) on what this would mean for them.

Two months ago, the Georgian government finally unveiled a comprehensive peace plan — almost 15
years after the war. It offered the Abkhaz substantial powers within Georgia, including the
vice presidency. Unfortunately, the plan broke the first law of peace negotiations: It was
launched unilaterally and without consulting the other side. And so the Abkhaz rejected it.

Mr. Saakashvili then last month made an inept speech to his Abkhaz and Ossetian “brothers and
sisters” in which he told them to fear Russia and their own “corrupt, criminal” leaders and wildly
inflated the number of Georgian refugees.

There is no love lost between the Abkhaz and the Russians. Wry inhabitants of Abkhazia like to say
that both the Russians and Georgians, remembering their idyllic childhood summer holidays by the
Black Sea, want Abkhazia but without any Abkhaz. It was Georgian clumsiness that drove the Abkhaz
into the embrace of Russia. Any nation would be alarmed to have a large, well-armed bully as a
neighbor — this is how the Georgians feel about Russia and how the Abkhaz feel about Georgia.

Western countries have been happy to pretend that by maintaining a small U.N. mission of 130
unarmed observers (entirely reliant for their security on Russian peacekeepers) they are
offering a road map to peace in Abkhazia. This timidity has allowed the Russians to reshape the facts on the ground.

After much hand-wringing — and Georgian resistance — the EU approved last year a small
aid program for Abkhazia and despatched two police officers to join the U.N. mission. Compare
this to what the Russians have offered the Abkhaz: Russian passports that allow them to
travel to the outside world, pensions for the elderly and, latterly, massive investments ahead
of the nearby 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. It is not surprising where Abkhaz loyalties now lie.

Abkhazia is now virtually lost to Georgia — almost as lost as Kosovo is to Serbia. The only
chance for Tbilisi to reverse this process and see Georgian refugees ever returning to their
home is, paradoxically, to let go. Tbilisi should open up Abkhazia and free it from dependence on
Russia. That means lifting sanctions and permitting a sea link to Turkey and the
re-opening of a railway line connecting it with Western Georgia.

Such a policy would change the atmosphere and call the Abkhaz bluff — forcing them to
negotiate in earnest and confront the issue that holds the key to their future status: Abkhaz
responsibilities to their prewar Georgian population. And the rest of us would sleep a
little easier if only this tinderbox in the Caucasus could be damped down.

Unfortunately, it’s a direct quote from the Coral Ridge Ministries’…ahem…documentary on the evils of Darwinism.

The latest thrust of the creationists seems to be an attempt to blame Darwin directly for the ravages of lunatics and criminals Hitler to the Columbine shooters (one of whom, apparently, wore a t-shirt with the words “natural selection” upon it).

What this wacky bunch conveniently overlooks is that the “selection” practised by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Klebold nothing “natural” about it, and has nothing to do with the progressive genetic mutation forseen by Darwin.

With the superficiality of most commentary on this area that reigns, you might think that this makes the organisation one of the more “anti-Russian” ones, correct? Then what do you make of the fact that they fought on the pro-Smirnov side in Pridnestrovia?

It’s been a while, but I’ve been pretty busy with family, work and endless rehearsals with various bands. However, the knowledge that I have an audience of multiple millions (a silent majority, of course,) thirsting for me to make some sense of their confusing and drab little lives, has forced me to once again take up electronic pen and paper and provide enlightenment.

While I’ve been busy saving the world via punk rock, some other admittedly less influential people in the world have been going about their business. The US Presidential election has been going big guns, not least in the form of an increasingly nasty (and tiresome) fight between Hilary and Barack.

(Full disclosure: were I American, I would almost certainly vote for a Democrat candidate)

That being so, I’ve watched and listened to the right-wing radio network do its “Jeremiah Wright 24/7” show. Boring beyond belief.

Closer to home, Ukraine’s top two politicians (by position, not by popularity) are – no news here – embroiled in a multi-front battle to be top dog. I’ll say this for Ukrainian politics: boring, they ain’t. The overall strategies remain the same for Mr. A (“hang on to power at any cost”) and Mrs. B (“win more power at any cost”). Tactics shift from the poor, abused Constitution to the State Property Fund. I’m going to look at some of these in separate posts and will be wondering whether recent events have left others longing for the principled management of the Party of Regions (irony intended.)

And Russia…oh, dear. Much to talk about there. And, I warn you, I will.

Hockey? We’ve got hockey here at Eastern Approaches. For those who care (i.e. all of you,) the Montreal Canadiens managed to hand off the Bruins, but not without real difficulty. Next up were the Flyers and the Habs had no answer for that opponent – they were out in 5 games. Bummer, but it was an unexpectedly good season, leaving me with lots of optimistic feelings for next year.

In international hockey, Canada won the Under-18 Junior World Championship, smiting Russia 8-0 in the final. I feared mentioning this at home, lest I be set upon by relatives. Canada took the silver at the Women’s World Championship, losing to perennially tough opponents the USA in the final.

The World Hockey Championship is now underway in lovely Halifax (great place to have ANY event, especially hockey) and Canada is 3-0, having had a fairly easy time beating the stuffing out of Slovenia (5-1) and Latvia (7-0, ouch), before moving on to a much tougher game against the Yanks. Glory be, we won (5-4), but it wasn’t easy. Speed on defense seems to be a problem and will be a massive worry should we face the Russians, who have a smoking good team. Check out the tournament site ici